The Motley Fool analysis indicates that such a deficit is unusual for Berkshire Hathaway; since 1990, the company has finished 10 or more percentage points behind the index nine times, and in seven of those instances, it outperformed the S&P 500 the following year. The analysis suggests that a year of lagging performance, while earnings continue to grow, often leads to a better-priced stock for the subsequent year. Greg Abel, who became CEO on January 1, has been actively deploying capital, with Berkshire holding approximately $365 billion in cash and Treasury bills at the end of June. The company completed a $9.4 billion acquisition of OxyChem in early January and a $6.8 billion acquisition of homebuilder Taylor Morrison in late July, in addition to repurchasing about $4.5 billion of its own shares in Q2. Operating earnings for the first half of 2026 rose 17% to $24.3 billion, reboundin